Third Quarter Waxing
by Scygnus Darkhawk
Summary: Setsuna rushes to her room, frightened. Konoka has a moonlit encounter. The rest... is mystery. Yeah, 'nother KonoSetsu.
1. First Moon

Prolouge

Setsuna cursed herself as she ran through Mahora's pathways, leaving its other occupants with the recollection of only a blur. Why, tonight of all nights, did she have to get caught up in a dinner party with Kono-chan? The sun was setting and the moon was rising, she had only moments to spare!

The lobby of her dorm building was subject to high winds as she passed by and hit the stairs, blowing off years of accumulated dust and reaching the third floor in record time. She skidded to an almost comical stop as she reached her room and flung the door open. Her bag hit the bed, the door slammed, and then her clothes followed it quickly. She leapt for the 'other' bed in the room, a heavy metal box that almost resembled a coffin, with a timed lock to hold it shut until morning.

Outside, the sun had already passed below the skyline, but a single sliver of green could still have been seen if the way was clear. It took but a moment, as the lid was closing, to fade away entirely.

The Journal of Konoe Konoka

First Moon

Dear Diary… no, that sounds silly, and this is a serious matter. Maybe I should wait to write this, but I feel I have to do it while I still remember it all vividly or something will be lost. My heart is still pounding from it… I'm really worried, but at the same time, filled with a happy anticipation. Perhaps I should start from the beginning, yes, that would be best.

Exactly one lunar month ago, I now realize, was when it first started. I had invited a few of our classmates over for a dinner party, as I do sometimes, just to liven up the atmosphere. I had even managed to get Secchan to come, though it took more skill than usual to convince her. She seemed very jittery for some reason, and I think I understand why now.

About half way through the dinner, she gasped, startling everyone, and then bolted before I could ask what was the matter. She was a blur going out the door. We thought about following, but she was moving pretty fast. That combined with Chachamaru-san saying she knew what it was, and that it wasn't something we should worry about, kept anyone from chasing after her. I wanted to, but I knew that if Secchan had a personal problem, it was better to let her find it in herself to tell me. Hehe, that's surprisingly literal.

The dinner was strained only for a few minutes before it returned to the previous cheerful attitude our class is so good at. I was planning on serving ice cream for dessert, but had underestimated the number of people that would appear. It was starting to get dark, so Negi-kun and Asuna objected, but our school is well lit enough, and the convenience store is only a few blocks away, so I overrode their objections gently and went out to augment our ice cream supply. The nights were chilly enough that I didn't worry too much about it melting on the way back, fortunately. The trip to the store was uneventful and pleasant, just the night sounds providing a dark but happy orchestra.

I was almost back to the dorm, just a block away, when I felt it. Someone was watching me. As soon as I felt it, before I had time to run or scream or anything, they spoke.

"Konbanwa, Kono-chan." It was a strange voice, but familiar at the same time. My inability to recognize it lead me to pause, and that's when I saw it. Two pits of night that the shadows couldn't hope to contend with. Eyes, I realized after a moment, staring into mine; they shone with emotion, intense… powerful… and indescribable. I heard not a sound as the eyes began advancing toward me at a leisurely pace. They held me rapt, frozen, unable to run or shout; I even forgot to breathe once or twice, I think. As they came closer, the light from outside the alley began to have enough force within it for me to begin making out an outline. A slim, toned body, female, walking with a confident gait. Behind her… two large wings, the most visible feature in the near-darkness, purest white in color. I began to put it together then, who this was, but it was only when she stepped fully into the light that I realized it.

Long, athletic legs, a slim build, modest but firm breasts, her form seeming to glow slightly in the lamplight, her large white wings really glowing in the darkness. And did I mention she was naked? Yes, completely naked. Somehow, it didn't seem important at the time.

"Uhm… Uh… what…?" I managed to stutter out, attempting to ask a question. Her eyes were boring into mine with those intense emotions, making it difficult to think.

"I just came to say good night, Kono-chan." She answered, walking towards me slowly, her voice low, with an undertone that made me shiver with… something. I couldn't do anything. She stopped in front of me, her wings spreading and then surrounding the both of us, putting us in our own little world. She gently took my face in her hands, caressing my cheeks with her thumbs as she pulled me forward and leaned my way. I'm shaking again, just remembering it.

Her eyes were locked to mine, calling me, holding me, caressing me… as our lips met. We held it for a few seconds; I could barely stand the intensity of even that chaste touching of lips. I even shed a few tears as the feelings overwhelmed me. Then she drew back, and smiled a loving smile at me, wiping the tears away with her thumbs.

"Good Night, Kono-chan." She whispered, and then backed away, disappearing into the darkness once again. I fell to my knees then; they simply wouldn't hold me up anymore, they shook so much.

"Secchan…" I finally whispered to the empty street.

Funny, I never let go of the ice cream the entire time.

Author's Notes: So, new ficcy, Third Quarter Waxing, yet another KonoSetsu... what can I say, I've caught the madness. I'd guess that many of you have questions, many questions, about what exactly is the deal with Setsuna acting so funny. All I'll say is that you'll have to wait and see. A cookie to the person that guesses correctly before chapter 2 is posted! Anyway...

You can all thank Yuki Myco for beta-ing this, as well as agreeing to take on beta-ing the other two of my KonoSetsu fics(the ones I'm still trying to write at the moment, I mean). And of course, Akamatsu-sama be praised.

Next time, on 'Third Quarter Waxing'! Will Setsuna stay this way? Will Konoka figure out why she's acting so different? Will Setsuna put some more smooth moves on Konoka? Let's hope so!


	2. Second Moon

The Journal of Konoe Konoka

Second Moon

The next day, when I saw Secchan in class, I queried as to whether something was wrong, due to her quick exit last night. She replied with something about an important thing she had to do, her school's business. Secchan can't lie to me though. She was loathing herself over whatever it was, I could see, but she wasn't blushing, so she obviously didn't remember what she'd done last night. I was very confused, and didn't know what to make of it. I think, after a week or so, that I'd started believing it was only a pleasant dream. By the middle of the month I had forgotten all about it, and things went on as usual.

Then it was tonight... the moon had struck three quarters, nearly to full. Secchan had politely declined my invitation to dinner, even as hard as I tried. It was only Negi-kun and Asuna in the dorm room that night, but it was a nice, quiet evening, even for all their arguing. It was a strange fortuitous coincidence, I think, that we ran out of bottled water. I was returning to the room, passing the very same alley as last time, when I felt it. Immediately, the memories of last time rushed to my mind, and I turned to meet Secchan's eyes.

"Konbanwa, Kono-chan." She said, same as before, though without such a dramatic tone as she stepped out onto the sidewalk, into the light, her form as radiant as before.

"Secchan, I... what are... what's..." I tried to speak, to get around the intense emotion passing from her eyes. This time, she didn't make a move except to smile with a bit of amusement. That broke the spell enough that I could speak.

"Secchan... what's going on?" I finally managed, giving her a pleading look.

"It's a long story, Kono-chan... are you sure you want to hear it?" She asked with no ire or shame in her voice.

"Please..." I replied. I sounded more than a bit pitiful, I think.

"Very well. I am not precisely the same Setsuna Sakurazaki you know." She began, and I think I gasped, because she quickly continued, "Do not be afraid: I am still mostly the same, only a bit more... free with myself. I love you more than life itself, that will never change, no matter how much I may deny it usually." The last statement, made so casually, but with so much emotion in her eyes and voice...

I broke down then, crying, falling into her arms, holding her tighly and letting all my frustration leak out in tears onto her shoulder. She held me, stroking my hair soothingly and whispering reassurances as I sobbed. My tears left after several minutes, but I continued to grasp her tightly, simply never wanting to let go. But all good things must come to an end, and our embrace ended when I realised that her back, where my hands were, felt soft and fuzzy. As did the rest of her, yet again, naked body that I was pressed against. My sense returned to me then as I propelled myself away quickly, blushing madly.

"Awww, what's the matter, Kono-chan? Don't like what you felt?" Secchan asked playfully, then lowered her tone, giving it a husky sound, "Or perhaps you enjoyed it too much?" She said, taking one step closer so that she was invading my personal space again, but did not make a move further. I stammered for a moment before attempting to change the subject.

"Why do you feel fuzzy?" I asked, gulping a bit, trying to keep from looking directly at her eyes or anywhere else.

"It's a part of what I intended to tell you tonight." Secchan replied, her stance dropping into a more relaxed form as she began to explain, "You know that I am hanyou, correct?"

I nodded slowly, risking a glance up at those beautiful wings of hers. The few times Secchan had spoken of them as cursed, I'd had a slight urge to slap some sense into her. I'd give almost anything to be able to fly like she can, to have those soft pure white wings on my back... but I need to stay on topic.

"Hanyou have a special time of month, defined by the lunar calendar, when they revert to the form which they were born to. When a hanyou is born, they are ninety-nine percent of the same type of creature as their mother, as they must be for the birth to not be harmful to either party. My mother was a demon, and my father, human. I was born on the night when the moon was in its third quarter, almost full. And so, at this time, I return to my form as a near complete demon."

"Alright..." I said, as she paused, "So you're still Secchan, you've just become a full demon? So why don't you remember it later?"

"That's..." Secchan's eyes fell then, obviously remembering something terrible, "When I was recruited by the Shinmeiryuu, they knew about this part of me. My recruiter, Tsuruko, the former Grand Master, objected, but she was overridden unanimously. On this night, every month for the past eleven years, I've been locked in a coffin until the morning. It's... a terrible thing."

"Secchan..." I said sofly, feeling for her, reaching out a hand but stopping just a bit short. I shook my head then, shaking off my worries, and drew her back into my embrace. She didn't cry as she held me as well, but she seemed to relax, and kept speaking.

"Most hanyou revert to full demon under great stress, especially since most have human mothers. When that happens, they revert to instinct alone; most situations in which this happens are battles for their life, so the instinct is to kill whatever seems threatening. As you probably know, people tend to judge everyone in a category by this sort of thing." She paused again with a sad sigh, "For most hanyou, it is fairly accurate. Many demons, you have probably noticed, follow after animals, and most species only have instincts and a very small amount of intelligence. So if they were born to demon mothers, their demon night would be instinctive and they would run wild. Uuzoku are different. We resemble crows, which are perhaps the most intelligent animals in the world." I looked up, and she must have read the incredulity on my face, because she smiled and spoke again, "I know dolphins and whales may be intelligent, but I haven't spoken with any, so I do not know for certain."

"So you talk to crows?" I asked, curious.

"Yes; their language is quite as complex as that of humans, and some are quite the philosophers." Secchan answered.

"What about apes? Crows don't have a complex social structure like most species of apes do, right?" I argued back in indirect defense of the human race.

"Crows consider apes a wrong step down the evolutionary path." Secchan replied, smiling at my attempted defense, "And humans the product of that wrong step." I think she saw me starting to object, but cut in before I could. "I tend to agree with them, to an extent. After all, why chain yourselves to leaders and status when you could fly free?" my objections faltered as I couldn't help but see the logic.

"So... " I started, trying to find a subject to shift to after being shot down on that argument, "What about your memories? And the fuzziness?" I moved my fingers on her back a bit to demonstrate my point. It still amazes me how soft she felt...

"Well... I was always told that what I became that night was terrible. But after the first two nights, I began fighting to stay out of it. I could not help myself, it's a terrible place, and eventually... I sealed my memories apart. Or at least, I believe that's what I did; I don't claim to truly know how the mind works. Usually, I remember nothing of that place... but as I am now, I remember..." Secchan faltered again, and this time she did begin to tear up. I clutched her tighter, letting her spill what tears she would, though they were few. "I'm... not like they think. Not like I think. Why won't they let me out? So dark..." She held me tighter, not tight enough to be painful, but I still felt it. It was my turn to whisper reassurances as she worked through her own trauma. I couldn't help but enjoy this side of Secchan: uninhibited about her emotions, free of her self-inflicted restrictions. After a few minutes, she calmed, and stood back a bit, though she didn't let go of me, nor I her.

"Kono-chan... I believe that without you, I wouldn't be alive now. I would have sliced my own head off to escape that box one night. But you kept me from it, your acceptance of me, whatever I was, whoever I was, your love of your best friend, even when I avoided you. And recently... your real, personal love, of me, of who I have become. You are the only person who has ever actively tried to free me from my own bonds. After all of that... my love for you has grown." her wings wrapped around us tightly, enfolding us in a soft blanket of feathers, "You are my world, Kono-chan. My life is yours, forever." I hadn't even realized until that moment that we moved closer with every breath, and when she had barely finished speaking, we kissed. It was more wonderful than I remembered the last being; it took my breath and my thougths away, throwing me into a torrent of emotion.

I really have to get to sleep soon, and remembering that any longer will not help. My heart clenches and beats faster every time I recall it, and I don't think I could stand up right now. After a few moments... or was it hours?... we withdrew from each other, our eyes meeting once again, looking into each other's souls, it seemed. After another endless moment spent thus, a bit of a different sort of smile graced Secchan's lips.

"Well... I think I gave you that last time, perhaps I should add a little something tonight, to encourage you about other things." Secchan said with a sly tone. I tried to back away a bit weakly, hearing the strange tone of her voice, but her wings, though yielding in truth, became like iron bars in my mind, impassable as I cornered myself for what I imagined would come. She drew me closer, caressing my back gently with her hands, slowly relaxing me, drawing closer bit by bit. I found myself pushing foward involuntarily, yearning to be closer still. I felt her hand come up to my neck, the tips of her fingers gently pushing my head foward, until...

I can't believe I'm writing about this, I really shouldn't be, I really should be getting to bed, and that second kiss will keep me up much more effectively than the first... though for different reasons. No, Konoka, you've got to get this down, you can't miss anything.

That second kiss... it was... hot. Heavy, filled with desire, I don't know quite how to describe it. It was slow to start, but we still seemed to crash together almost violently. I don't remember whose tongue went for the other first, but go they did. Secchan almost seemed to play with me, one minute ruling the kiss with her powerful muscle, the next submitting, letting me have my way with her. Oh, that sounds terrible, I can't believe I just wrote that... I don't know how long it lasted, but I remember Secchan finally pulling away with a smug smile, and me trying to follow her.

"Getting a bit frisky, Kono-chan?" She asked slyly, flexing her gluteus muscles, which I quite suddenly realized were resting in my hands. It took roughly a full second for my arousal to clear enough that I could realize I probably shouldn't be grabbing there... I still can't believe I did that... I propelled myself away rapidly, pushing her wings aside and almost tripping backwards into the deserted street. I almost swear I can still feel her... No, don't think about that. She chuckled, and pulled me forward onto stable ground, though she let me keep my distance for the moment. I panted a bit, recovering back to my normal self and shivering a little from the sweat that seemed to have appeared on me, cooler in the late-autumn air. Secchan looked like she wanted to help, but I drew away and made a gesture that stopped her, though her returning smile, probably due to the exact reason for my reluctance to let her get any closer, showed she wasn't too disheartened. I was about to speak when she suddenly looked up in a manner that reminded me of a startled animal.

"Looks like your chaperones are here, Kono-chan, so I'll have to bid you farewell, sadly." Secchan said, looking back at me and giving a smile, "Please, I beg of you, don't tell me that the box is stuck loose, or I won't ever be seen again." she bowed somewhat formally then, and started to back away.

"Wait!" I said loudly, still recovering my breath, one former question springing once again to my mind, "Fuzzy?" She paused, then laughed, almost a femenine guffaw.

"I'll tell you all about that next month, Kono-chan." She said, once more with that sly look, "Wear something pretty but casual and be here a half-hour after the sun goes down." her parting remark, which I suspect was setting an actual date of sorts, marked her complete disappearance as Negi-kun and Asuna came into sight around the corner. They were obviously distressed; Negi-kun had his staff held ready, and Asuna was holding her pactio card ready for use. I don't remember the entire conversation well enough to write down, but Negi-kun and Asuna had apparently became worried about me and came looking when Negi-kun sensed a demonic presence, which had disappeared into thin air when they spotted me. And then they noticed me sweating and assumed I had a fever. I was rushed back, in the way only such overly-worried friends can rush you, and given a hot bath, soup, and then put to bed. I gave up arguing, and decided to claim full health in the morning. But the events of the last two third quarter moons assaulted my mind, so I dug this unused journal out of my belongings and put my thoughts to rest here, so they can be recalled by my more focused mind later, and so I could get to sleep.

A thousand questions burn in my mind, but they will lie here while I rest myself, and hopefully I can survive until next month and find out why she felt fuzzy.

Author's Rambles: Chapter Two! Now you all know what's going on, time to hand out the cookies... Thirteen-nights/whatever the hell that full name is, you get a cookie, since you pretty much have it. Little Wolf, Sojix, you get to split one, since you were both close. I took Takahashi's idea from Inu Yasha and reworked the 'science' of it a bit. This entire fic is spawned from a single line I imagined demon-Setsuna saying, and that will be next chapter, on their little date. Should I...? Why not. Cookie Challenge Number Two! Can anyone guess what the fuziness is?

Next Chapter: Will Konoka speak up to Setsuna? Where will demon-Setsuna take her? Will I make some of you throw up? Maybe! Tune in next month! Or whatever...


	3. Moving

Err... Third chapter is done, but I got a bit carried away, so I will not place it here for fear of account deletion. I know this is not allowed either, but I ask the admins please overlook this until such time as everyone knows where it is now, and then delete this chapter and/or story as you please. I apologize, but it was the only way I know to get the info to all the readers, including the anonymouses.

Alright, this is being a bit troublesome. Go to the link for my homepage. It'll probably bring up a 'no results found', so get back to the main page, search fanfics by author and look for 'Scyggy', and make sure the Rating reads "all". Sorry for the inconvenience.


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